Kina Grannis sings in her new video, "In Your Arms." The video, directed by Greg Jardin, includes the use of 288,000 jelly beans and has attracted national attention, including a segment on NBC's "Ellen." Grannis grew up in Mission Viejo.

Kina Grannis poses with a bird and background made out of jelly beans in her latest video, "In Your Arms." More than 280,000 jelly beans were used in the video, which has attracted national attention and has thrust Grannis, who won a "Crash the Super Bowl" contest in 2008, back in the spotlight.

Kina Grannis grew up in Mission Viejo. She has become a nationally recognized singer/songwriter with songs such as "Valentine" and "Message From Your Heart." Her video for the single, "In Your Arms," was made with 288,000 jelly beans and has attracted national attention for its creativity. She is MTV's "Push Artist of the Week" during the week of Nov. 28-Dec. 3.

Kina Grannis performs during her CD release party in February 2010 at the Dakota Lounge in Santa Monica. Her video for "In Your Arms" was made with 288,000 jelly beans and has attracted more than 3.4 million views on YouTube.

YouTube sensation, Kina Grannis, performed in July 2010 at Pittsford Park in one of Lake Forest's summer concert series. Grannis recently released a new video for the single, "In Your Arms," using 288,000 jelly beans. The video has been viewed more than 3.4 million times on YouTube and was picked up for broadcast last week by MTV.

Kina Grannis performs during a CD release party for her latest album, "Stairwells," in February 2010 at the Dakota Lounge in Santa Monica. A video for the song, "In Your Arms," was made with 288,000 jelly beans and has attracted 3.4 million views on YouTube. She's back in the national spotlight with her recent work.

YouTube sensation Kina Grannis performed in July 2010 at Pittsford Park in Lake Forest. The longtime Mission Viejo resident has recently released a music video, "In Your Arms," made of 288,000 jelly beans. It has been viewed more than 3.4 million times, and caught the attention of Ellen DeGeneres, who had Grannis on her show on Nov. 15.

Kina Grannis of Mission Viejo is pictured here in Los Angeles preparing for one of her first music videos for the song, "Message From Your Heart." The video was seen by about 97 million people during the Super Bowl in 2008, and won the Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl" contest. She has since self-recorded an album, "Stairwells," and toured Europe.

Take 288,000 jelly beans, 22 months, 2,460 still frames and one Kina Grannis. What do you get?

A video that has been viewed more than 3.4 million times on YouTube, and has catapulted Grannis – who grew up in Mission Viejo and graduated from Capistrano Valley High School – into the national spotlight. Once again.

Grannis’ charming, colorful video for the song “In Your Arms” was created using thousands of digital photographs strung together by director Greg Jardin. In each image, the singer is posing in front of a hand-made canvas of Jelly Belly jelly beans. The backgrounds and Grannis’ poses change over time, telling a romantic story – all without the use of green screen.

“It was exciting, but it was a lot of time and work,” Grannis said about the making of the video, which was released Nov. 3. “It took all of my nights and weekends. Physically, it was actually pretty trying also. It was not that comfortable lying on top of glass, it turns out. Sometimes I had to have my neck craned all the way left and hold it there. It was challenging in many respects.”

Apparently, all that hard work has paid off. The stop-motion video, added to MTV’s rotation last week, has attracted the attention of “The Today Show,” “Good Morning America,” ABC News, “Inside Edition,” “E! News” and Entertainment Weekly. On Nov. 15, Grannis appeared on “Ellen” to talk about her career and sing the song as her video was projected overhead.

“Being on the ‘Ellen’ show was pretty surreal for me,” said the 26-year-old singer/songwriter. “I’ve loved Ellen DeGeneres for a long time. It has been kind of a dream of mine to be on the show. Everyone was super nice – super genuine and awesome and nice. I was really nervous, but it went by really quick.”

The “Ellen” appearance was one of many accomplishments in Grannis’ short, yet fruitful, music career. Earlier this year, she won the MTV O Music Award for best web-born artist. Last year, she won the Sirius/XM Coffee House Singer-Songwriter Discovery of the Year award.

Her latest, self-released album, “Stairwells,” has hit No. 2 on iTunes’ singer-songwriter chart, and No. 2 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. The video for “Valentine,” the first single from that album, has been viewed more than 10.5 million times on YouTube.

She remains one of YouTube’s most-subscribed-to musicians, with more than 481,000 subscribers and 83.9 million total views.

Grannis may be best known for winning the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” contest in 2008. Her video for “Message from Your Heart” aired in front of an estimated 97 million viewers, and won her $10,000 and a coveted contract with Interscope Records. She later turned down that deal, so she could record and control her own songs on “Stairwells.”

“I know (Interscope is) a giant, successful label,” she said. “I started meeting with them and their plan was something like, ‘OK, let’s have you write with a bunch of songwriters. Let’s have you write a new album.’ For me, I already had an album written. Songwriting is something that’s super personal. The idea of sitting in a room with a stranger and trying to craft a hit doesn’t appeal to me at all.”

Despite the odds and the naysayers, Grannis has built a successful career as an independent artist. Her fans – members of “Kination” who call themselves “Kinerds” – appreciate that she has remained true to her heart and vision. A recent “World in Front of Me” tour of Europe sold out all its dates.

“They’ve always supported me, doing what I’m doing. Europe was pretty amazing. It was the first time touring outside of the U.S. I have this weird international following from the Internet. Getting to see these people in person, and watching them sing my songs – it really helped me put into perspective what happened.”

Grannis says that since the release of her music video for “In Your Arms,” a lot of news sources have been picking up her story and “major labels are reaching out again.” She’s happy she’s been able to do everything her way – via the Internet, social media sites and homemade videos of performances she films with a laptop computer.

“It’s interesting. A lot of people in the industry were hesitant. They kind of don’t want to believe that it’s real. I myself don’t believe it’s real sometimes. Now, MTV and these other big music (companies) are jumping on board. That’s crazy to me. I love that.”

This week, MTV has named Grannis its “Push Artist of the Week.” VH1 will feature Grannis on its “Big Morning Buzz Live” show on Dec. 6. MTV will also spotlight Grannis as an “artist to watch” in its “10 on Top” show, airing in early December.

In February, Grannis is returning to Europe for an “In Your Arms” tour. She also hopes to tour Asia and Australia in the near future.

In the meantime, she plans to spend some down time with her family in Mission Viejo during the holidays, and “get back to the writing again.” She wants to get started on her next album, and begin the crazy process all over again.

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